The total bank debts incurred by Bianfishco, the seafood company which has become the hottest topic of the discussions with its financial problems, have reached 1000 billion dong. The names of the nine banks which are the creditors of Bianfishco have been made public.

The nine banks include the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), which lent 139.2 billion dong and 2.6 million dollars, An Binh Bank, which lent 63.5 billion dong and 10 million dollars, Can Tho-Hau Giang branch of development bank 310.2 billion dong, Asia Commercial Bank 61.3 billion dong.

Most of the banks said they have been put on tenterhooks after hearing about the problems with the debt payment capability of Bianfishco. A lot of loans have become overdue, while Bianfishco does not have money to pay.

Nguyen Thanh Toai, Deputy General Director of ACB, said that the unpaid debt of Bianfishco does not worry the bank much. “We are not too pessimistic about the debts incurred by Bianfishco. We are trying to collect debts by selling the assets mortgaged by Bianfishco for the loans,” Toai said.

Toai declined to give detailed information about the mortgaged assets and the value of the assets.

The same words were also released at the bank’s shareholders’ meeting held recently to calm down the shareholders who expressed their worries about Bianfishco’s debts.

Meanwhile, Tran Bich Quan, PR Manager of An Binh Bank, has only informed that the bank has been discussing the issue for the last some days--to find out the most feasible and reasonable solution to collect debt from the big debtor.

No official statements have been made, but it seems that the two bankers will not interested in the plans to rescue Bianfishco, such as freezing debts, injecting money in Bianfishco to become members of the board of directors.

Another banker said he has heard that a creditor suddenly refused to provide additional loans and take necessary measures to sell the collaterals for the loans. The bank has even blocked the company’s bank account.

“We are also considering doing this,” the banker said.

The thing which the public has been most interested in is who out of the nine banks would get the priority to get debt payment first, and how the debt payment priority order would be.

Dat Viet newspaper has quoted lawyers as saying that under the current laws, the laborers of the company would get the first priority to get salaries and relating allowances. After that, the money left by the bankrupted company would be used to clear unpaid taxes.

As for the bank debts, the loans with mortgaged assets would be settled first.

As such, there is no regulation to which lawyers can refer to say who it must prioritize to pay debts - banks or farmers. The total debt that Bianfishco is owing to banks and farmers has reached 1275 billion dong. Meanwhile, no on can say what bank of the nine banks would get the priority to get repayment.

A banker-creditor has revealed that one of the mortgaged assets is the company’s seafood processing factory.

In the past, borrowers could not mortgage the same assets at different banks for different loans. However, under the new regulations, one asset could be used as the collateral for many loans, provided that the total value of the loan is not higher than 70 percent of the assets’ value.

Besides BIDV, ACB and An Binh Bank, the other bankers-creditors of Bianfishco include the Vietnam-Thailand Bank, HCM City Branch (3.5 million dollars), the Can Tho-Hau Giang branch of the development bank (310.2 billion dong), Habubank HCM City branch (63.9 billion dong), Vietinbank Can Tho Branch (3 billion dong), Housing Development Bank Can Tho Branch (20 billion dong), the Saigon branch of the export bank (24 billion dong and 304,800 dollars).